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Office Christmas Party (2016), R, ★★1/2

It's a Project X-filled Christmas party!
Who does not love an office Christmas party? Well, maybe you could say, a quarter of the staff depending on where you working at and who you are working for. However, it is a time for people to get reacquainted and relaxed with everybody, mingling and having conservations about miscellaneous topics. But, this movie, having one of the worst if not the worst title of the year, is mostly about the title: they throw an office Christmas party. Why? To save everybody's jobs from the company. There are some laughs in the movie, however, thanks to a multi-plotted and muddled script, the movie turns into a sappy and forgettable film. If you are hungover from watching this movie and cannot remember anything, it is okay.

Ok. Describing the whole movie is going to be a bit frustrating to write because there is a lot of things going for multiple characters. Josh (Jason Bateman) is the Chief Technical Officer for an IT company called Zenotek as he is depressed because he is in the process of finalizing his divorce. We meet his coworkers - Mary (Kate McKinnon), a Human Resources Administrator, Meghan (Jamie Chung) and Jeremy (Rob Corddry), who is a jerk. There has been a mutual chemistry between Josh and coworker, Tracy (Olivia Munn), who has been developing new software for the company, however, he never had the courage to ask her out.

Clay Vanstone (T.J. Miller) is the branch's manager as he and his sister and CEO, Carol (Jennifer Aniston, have a bitter relationship as she is an intimidator as she rips off Christmas decorations in the main office. She gathers Josh, Tracy, Clay and others for a meeting. Tracy pitches her internet program as Mary says there should be an office Christmas party, which Carol rejects immediately. Clay and Carol argue regarding the company's decreasing sales and also how their father's death affected them both. Carol gives Clay a deal that if they can close a contract on a potential client (Courtney B. Vance), she will let everyone keep their jobs.

YAYYY!!!!
I wanted to have a good time with this time and I semi-enjoyed it. However, the filmmakers dropped the ball on some aspects. I believed that they were too many characters to get invested in. I thought the plot involving a pimp played by Jillian Bell was unnecessary and tried to force laughs and should have been cut. I believed there was a good, consistent, hard R-rated tone going on until a tonal shift occurs as the movie dials down regarding the company and most of the characters becomes too nice and becomes a Hallmark-movie kind of ending. Even though are cliched gags in a type of Project X-style, it is played a lot better here because it know what it wants to be for the most part.

T.J. Miller is consistently funny and a bit charming in his role as he and Kate McKinnon steals the whole movie as they take the movie up a notch. Courtney B. Vance has an unforgettable role as the "client" who has had a past of raging and becomes the main attraction of the party. Jason Bateman and Olivia Munn have nice chemistry but their story is not much. Jennifer Aniston still plays the hard-nosed boss as she did in Horrible Bosses. All I'm saying that there are characters that elevated this movie and characters that somewhat stabilized or derail the movie.

Directors Will Speck and Josh Gordon basically created a crossover between Project X and The Wolf of Wall Street: Christmas edition. However, it is not as crazy. But, in the end, even though the movie produced some laughs, the tonal shift in the third act and the unnecessary subplot involving the pimp derailed my experience with the movie. I wished that the movie was tonally consistent and not as overstuffed with some unnecessary characters and plot lines. So, I'd say that this is a basic cable watch if you want to attend the office Christmas party. But, you are going to forget it because it will not be a holiday comedy classic as time goes by.

**1/2


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